Had a great time in Roto-vegas this weekend. Hit the trails at the world-famous mountain bike park. Will give an overview of that later.
We’d only been to Rotorua once before, and the memories came flooding back through our nostrils the minute we wound down the car window on our way into town.
For those of you unfamiliar with this part of NZ, there is significant “thermal activity” to be found there.And it smells like it.
I was always under the impression that the locals just ate too many baked beans, but no, apparently it’s the bubbling mud pools which create the stench.
"Thermal activity" - One of Rotorua's smaller bubbling mud pools.
The smell is pretty striking when you’re just visiting the place, but I suppose the locals get used to it.
Scientists tell us that the smell is actually an aphrodisiac, but I highly doubt it. It just smells like the whole town let rip at once.
It still got me to thinking, does good old-fashioned flatulence still provide the giggles to Rotoru-ians that it does to others?
Do schoolboys still snicker when someone lets rip? Or doesn’t it have the same impact?
Can blokes get away with letting out a silent-but-deadly in bed next to the missus?
How do people tell when their eggs have gone off?
These are some of the questions I pondered on the drive home. Mine’s an inquiring mind.
It was a great weekend, but it’s good to breathe the clean-green air of Hawke’s Bay again.
Rotorua Local said
Thank goodness you dont do stand up this is a poor attempt at comedy.
Tina O'Neill said
If you put our country down so much, why the hell did you come to it?
By all means, I lived in Australia and wasn’t that impressed with it, but I didn’t put it down and brag about the bad things about it
Helen said
I love it, great questions. I love that this made the paper too! some people need to stop taking themselves so seriously. I’m a New Zealander born and raised and I think what you say is funny and at times intellegent observations. What’s more though…who gets upset over a BLOG!
Matt said
People need to just realise that Aussies and Kiwis love having a good natured dig at each other.
The whingers about this need to read very closely the very first sentence….”Had a great time in Roto-vegas this weekend.”
After checking out this blog has actually encouraged me to look at going to NZ for our families next holiday!
Great work!
Anne said
I totally agree with you about Rottenrua! I used to live there and swore I’d never go back but sadly 2 of my kids moved there and I have had to retract my ‘swearing’. Lucky for me though they live ‘above the smell zone’. Apart from the smell it has nothing else going for it..it’s all lies and more lies and jollyexpensive to visit the so-called attractions. a real tourist trap where the said tourists are ripped off daily.
yep Nzers take themselves far too seriously and good honest opinions from folks like you are badly needed! I lived in Oz too for a few years and loved it and wish I could have stayed.I’m a born & bred kiwi…roll on the time we are gobbled up by Aussie!
Scott said
Good God! Get a life, did you happen to notice the 11 or so beautiful lakes there, or the Green grass everywhere ( none of that in the wonderful Oz eh!) or the ease of getting to the coast – only an hour away – or was the smell too overpowering for you … Are the ozzies still looking at having to drink recycled sewerage water?? we don’t have to …..
Jenny said
Thank you for letting us Aussies in on the pros and cons of the areas in New Zealand. My parents visited there in the 1970′s and loved every minute of it, especially Rota-Vegas. Now I would rather be forewarned about any smells, and any particular drawbacks, if the town is a natural stinker, we can bring along a gas mask. I also remember being dragged to the Daylesford Mineral Springs in Victoria to taste the various springwaters and recall there were peculiar smells from that too. As for Hobart after 5, my one and only visit there ensured I wouldn’t be back, it was dead, I have never been so bored in my life. So there you have it, everyone has their own views and observations.
Scott said
Here we go … more arrogant dim witted wankers calling it Roto”vegas” … totally derogatory … really showing their low class existence … You know, you’d be called “Pikies” if you lived in the UK .
been and done nz said
i LOVE how the kiwis are fuming over this!
Just proving to everyone how they dont have a sense of humour and how easily hurt they are over a simple comment!
Get over yourselves..you are SO jealous of Australia and australians its not funny anymore..its almost a mental sickness which should be tended to.
i am loving this blog..its like every comment which went through my mind whilst in NZ has been somehow magically posted on this website!
ur a ledg!
keep up the good work!
lynda said
hahahaha go u aussi thro n thro….. lol sharni isa kiwi.. lol ima aussi u can tell rite?
Lisa said
Come on Kiwis, get a sense of humour will you!
Yes blog authors, The locals do get used to the smell, although it IS a bit whiffy when it’s an overcast day.
As for Rotovegas being derogatory..wth? Most of the locals call it that too. Get over it.
Rick Thompson said
Hahaha come on cuz, it’s not that bad. I’m a Rotorua born Maori living in Sydney for the last 20 odd years and to tell you the truth I love the smell of Rotorua. It reminds me that I am home. Of course when I took my Aussie missus back there she had a whinge because every morning, I’d open the door and stand there and breath it all in. The smell takes a bit of getting use to, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
BTW I love your blog. Good for a laugh.
jess said
i didnt find your blog offensive, yes rotorua smells, but yes you do get used to it, and yes when we re-enter the city we giggle and try to be the first to blame someone else… rotorua has so much more to offer though and is definitely a must-do place when coming to nz.
Joel said
Anne,
“roll on the time we are gobbled up by Aussie!”
What a ridiculous comment I think you are really missing the point of this blog. I grew up in Rotorua but live in the UK (for now) and very much enjoyed this review of my home town. Keep up the blogging and don’t tone it down its making me homesick.
P.S I look forward to reading about your first trip to Gore :)
And Anne, life is too short, move to oz as it isn’t going to come to you.
Cheers
Maori Native true blue said
This is how it is for us locals… No we don’t notice the smell because we’ve lived here for more then 2 minutes. If you visited some of our beautiful attractions you would of found the smell not so empowering because the sights we have are breath taking. But you wouldn’t know that cause you were more over powered by the smell then taking in the sights which is a shame because you’ve robbed yourself of some pretty amazing things that all tourists come here to see all the time leaving always with positive comments threatening to return for some more of our smelly town that over powered you. If you think stuff to do here is expensive… tell me a tourism place where things AREN’T expensive and I’m sure we’ll all jump aboard that gravy train.
These are the things that you should know about us New Zealanders:
1. You’re right we do know more about Australia
not because we’re interested in the place… but because we want to come there take your money and then come home and retire.
2. We were the ones that created the pavlova thank you and this is why… get your facts right!
1926 – Keith Money, a Pavlova biographer, wrote in his 1982 book Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art that a chef at a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour. The hotel chef invented was inspired by her tutu, draped in green silk cabbage roses. The basic shape of the tutu was provided by a meringue case, while the froth of the skirt’s net was suggested by whipped cream. To achieve the effect of the green roses the enterprising chef used slices of kiwifruit, then known as Chinese gooseberries.
1935 – According to chef Herbert (Bert) Sachse of the Hotel Esplanade in Perth, Western Australia, the dessert was originally created as a tea dessert for the Hotel’s afternoon teas. According to the Paxton family legend, the Pavlova was named at a meeting at which Sachse presented the now familiar cake. The family say that either the licensee, the manager, or chef Sachse remarked, “It is as light as Pavlova.” It was then named Pavlova after the great Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, who had been a guest of the hotel during her 1929 tour of Australia. In 1973, Herbert Sachse stated in a magazine interview that he sought to improve the Meringue Cake recipe that he found in the Women’s Mirror Magazine on April 2, 1935. The recipe was contributed by a New Zealand resident
I think I’ve made my point!!!!
NZer said
Ha, awesome. I too have often pondered these questions about R-vegas. I suspect, though, that over the generations the locals have adapted a highly-attuned sense of smell that enables them to differentiate between different smells that you and I group together as ‘fart smells’.
Personally, though, I find the Rotorua smell (not unlike the smell of my own botty-burps) quite appealing.
Dizzymum said
Rotorua – where no one can smell your fart. That’s according to my kids, they loved the fact that they could get away with doing sneaky little ones. Like your blog, I get the humour, pity others don’t. Come visit mine sometime!
danigirl said
hey i think this is great.
Everyone needs to laugh at them selves once and a while.
Im from good ole rotorua and i must say, you cant smell it after a while, we know when you eggs go off cause they smell like the mud pools and when some one flatulates its just like in any other town.
We dont smell the sulfur all the time, only in areas of high concentration.
For all you people hating on the blog seriously get a life, or all the aussies will think we have nothing better to do :)
mere said
I laughed when I read this. It was funny! Remember to have a laugh guys.
Nathan said
Nice one, mate. Some people really can’t take a joke. Relax people, the author’s having a laugh. Keep up the godo work.
From a die-hard Kiwi
AP said
I grew up in Roto-vegas and often during summer months on the drive between the city centre and the airport, the smell from the council’s waste water treatment plant mixed with the sulphur and it was the worst stench you could imagine! Apart from that, its a fun town with plenty to do!
Roger said
Yup, I enjoyed Roto-vegas too. I understand why the Kiwis call it Roto-vegas and you really have to ask those questions don’t you? The smell is incredible – it doesnt take long before you forget it’s even there.
Like all tourist attractions they tend to come with a price. Still, there were plenty of places to visit and the quality of the tourist venues was very high.
I can’t see that anyone would be heading to Tasmania for the night life, however I reckon it’s a beautiful place, well worth the visit.
Kat said
I love how many people claim to be appalled/offended by your blog, but take the time to read and comment on it (I’m reasonably certain there are more offensive things to worry about on the net).
Anyway, enjoying reading it. I’m a Melburnian living in the little city with the pointy tower… I moved here because my company offered lots of money for me to shift – would go home in a flash but for the lovely Kiwi man I met here!
Zach said
i don’t understand all the commotion
u said you loved it
its not like the jokes are nasty.
i don’t understand how this was published in the paper
i thought The Age was above that kind of crap.
tia said
the first time we drove through rotovegas, my 3 year old niece, proclaimed ” pooh wind down the window mum” love your blog so many things made me laugh and as a kiwi, i think the same things travelling through my own country…. really nice to drive on the motorways here in melbourne ( where i currently live) and not have crazy drivers overtaking me like i’m a retard for sitting on the speed limit… although loved the comment “the speed limit is more like guidelines” that says so much about kiwi’s….i’m sure most of us realise this is great tongue and cheek, and totally true.
phill said
I think its great for tourism-keep it up guys,those kiwis who take offence-chill out man!It’s toungue -in -cheek stuff.I live next door to Rotorua and its got to be on everyones -to go to list if they are in the North Island.
Renz said
U gotta visit Roto-vegas!! If you can get over the smell like these IDIOTS are talking about which is only natrual to the earth then its a MUST visit. I mean cummon it must be famous why they are going on about it. does Aussie have a town with only 60 thousand people living it thats Famous?? Does Aussie even have any fresh lakes you can swim in? and If so are they not man made?? haha can see the humor but in all honeslty but I really have to have a laugh at the Kiwis having a punt at the Aussies. Aussies bullshit Kiwis will tell ya the truth!
Speaking of the health benefits Rotorua has to offer, I think one they got from the Aussies was apart from Fostors beer tasting like shit it made a great SHAMPOO!!!
Cindy said
Wow. The reactions are almost as funny as the comments on your blog.
It was great to have a laugh, keep it up!
LOVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR!!!
Potaua said
Kia ora – everyone is free to an opinion, just like this dude and here’s mine. You’re a boiled head bro and getting play by pissing on us can only be funny to idiots like you.
By the way, the name is Rotorua, you cabbage.
Tamara said
My God. Aren’t our neighbours over the ditch sensitive? I laughed all the way through this site, and think it is a great tongue in cheek reference for aussies in ‘Noo Zillin’. We go every year, and we do find two extremes of people. Those who laugh and give the shit back, and those who need to get a life…
Danno said
I’m glad some of you have a sense of humour but please do not discourage others to have a whinge.. Would you have read all these comments had they all be “oh wow! I really love what you wrote”
so c’mon kiwis, put on those valcro (?) gloves and whinge till your hearts content..
Quick question? why do you play Crowded House at your sporting venues, surely some NZ music would make more sense. Dave Doblin or something like that..
Martin Sharp said
Hey guys it doesnt smell that bad!!!!!
There is heaps to do in RotoVegas, the Mountain Bike Park is just Awesome.
lakes, mountains and three beaches within an hours drive. Paradise mate.
Blog On.
and What the hell is the Age………:-)
John Howard said
Congrats for telling the truth.
I live in Oz and love it:
The world’s most shallow place.
The world’s best accent. Believe moi! The best! The only accent guaranteed to make Shakespearian directors commit suicide. “Lend moi youse ears” Simple. No need to complicate it with short or long A. The best joke ” An Aussie making fun of someone else’s accent”. Hilarious.
The world’s best beer. Tooheys New of course! How can anyone beat this.
Above all there is Tasmania (NZ’s mate – imitation is the best form of flattery) or even better South Australia. You can marry that hottie cousin or maybe that stunning daughter. Freedom! Even better, put their body in a barrel of acid. Meet a bogan. Grab the world’s second best beer, VB, and celebrate.
The food. Magnificent. Try that Aussie icon , Maccas. Try a very bad croissant, flatten it in a sandwich grill, some really bad jam, beeeauty!
The only trouble is that bloody NZ wine is everywhere now. Give moi a good $2 chuck at Dan Murphy any day.
I love Australia mates. Only trouble is I don’t meet many Australians. The work’s too hard and I’m not next to a beach or at Centrelink. You have to be quick and catch them on the day they are at work.
Julie said
Hmmmm, I thought people had the right to blog what you like. If you don’t like what these guys say, start your own blog and say differently. I am certain NZ is lovely, but guys, take a joke. Come to oz and slag us. We have broad shoulders and can take it. Hell, I laugh at us all the time when I travel and see drunken yobbo aussies behaving badly, and OMG we behave badly. But, ultimately, these guys would leave NZ if it was that bad and basically they are saying some great things about you all. Chin up, be proud.
JAFAandproud said
I couldn’t agree with you more and was rolling in fits of giggles when reading your summations on Rotorua. Rotovegas, or Rottenrua as I like to call it literally stinks!
Nice place, for both the aesthetic and adventure elements (if you take away the annoying tourists), but hell how do people live with the smell? I was just down in Roto last month with friends, both native NZ and foreigners, had a great time, but didn’t appreciate the lingering smell of explosive farts/rotten eggs amidst my clothing, days later upon my return to JAFAland!!
Love your blog. Kiwis need to learn to laugh at themselves more often (and I’m born and bred). Funny post on Pyeboy Jesse Ryder too! Keep up the good work.
Clairzilla said
Did you ride the Luge? The one in Rotorua is much better than the one in Queenstown. I’ve been to Rotorua 3 times and I don’t think the smell is bad. It’s an unusual smell, but I wouldn’t say it made me feel sick. Anyway, it’s not like you can smell it all the time, just when you catch the odd whiff. When you go to the thermal village, it’s not even that bad there and the water is really good for your skin, so if you go back, go for a swim at the Polynesian Spa.
Mountain Biking: Rotorua | Fush ‘n’ Chups said
[...] I posted before, we took a trip to Rotorua a few weekends ago to check out the mountain bike park. The drive was a bit treacherous at times, but well worth [...]
B said
1. advice to those who seem to have a problem with this blog, if you dislike this blog so much don’t read it , if I have to read another poorely explained comment on why rotorua is so fantastic somebody’s head is going to roll
2. it’s is true , rotorua does “smell” not so pleasantly. but still is a pretty place.
3. no school boys don’t snicker when someone lets one rip. they snicker at stupider things
4. the missus will always know when the man lets out a silent but deadly one
5. the eggs look rotten ?
Ausois said
Off topic, but quirky, NZ is IS IS quirky … yes very quirky … and that’s it. Roto-Vegas is quirky, Kiwi eksints are quirky. Yes QUIRKY. Love the word. Also the Flight of the Conchords is very QUIRKY (sorry), just watched a bunch of vids on YouTube and made me feel homesick for NY (sorry) .. I mean NZ. Sums it up really, if you move to a quirky slightly off-beat, semi-retarded joint like NZ. By the way my fav Flight of the Cs song is “Foux da Fa Fa” …. superbe!! Anyway the blog is getting better and back on track now everyone has got that its a PUSSTAKE. Oh check out the Flight of the Cs song with Hobbits …. LOTR thingo. F**king great. Gotta shoot now, true story!!
Rotorua said
The smell in Rotorua and it’s unique enhancing properties has impressed Hugh Hefner enough to fork out nearly million bucks to kit out the Rotorua Museum as his personal Playboy holiday home in New Zealand, check out the story. http://www.rotoruanz.com/
(I thought these were meant to end at noon? – Admin)
Kiwiana all the way! said
I think that this website is the most insulting thing I’ve seen between aussies and kiwis. This takes friendly rivalry too far. You’re trying to help aussies who come over? More like hinder them! How is anyone supposed to enjoy our country with your negative comments bouncing around in their minds?
And BTW, fush’n'chups? Are you trying to make up for how you guys say feesh’en’cheeps? I must say, I think you’re overcompensating a bit, mate.
Robert said
New Zealanders keep talking about “Feesh and Cheeps”, which is a huge exaggeration.
I wonder, how do New Zealanders say “cheap”?